At the Toastie Lab there is no such thing as too cheesy. There is such a thing as a superduper, delicious, semi-healthy, easy, crispy, flavorful, mouth-watering, did I say delicious already? KIMCHI TOASTIE. OMG. Did we tell you about the spicy kimchi mayonnaise on the side, yet? Yeah, you’ll enjoy this one 🙂
Recipe Inspiration
I don’t think that at this point it is a surprise to you that we like our kimchi? It is thanks to Jack that we have introduced kimchi to our kitchen. Or our kitchen to kimchi, rather. Part of Jack’s wandering adventures abroad were spent in South Korea, where his life changed drastically thanks to South Korea’s culinary cuisine. All for the better… 🙂
Why We Love It
What we have learned from travelling the world is that there’s SO MUCH AMAZING FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This Kimcheesy Toastie transports us straight back to South Korea! With so much different flavors in our hearts, we like to experiment with funky fusion cuisine. So, of course, we had to try this soury, acidy, crispy, crunchy, spicy flavor bomb on a toastie! And yes, the cheesy addition is out of respect for the Classic Toastie!
Equipment
To make a toastie, toasted sandwich, panini, jaffle, whatever you want to call it, you will need some equipment. This is what we used to make our kimchi and cheese toasties:
- Tefal: Inicio Grill (Awesome for Toasties and All Grilling Needs)
- Tefal: Ultracompact Sandwich (Dedicated Toastie Maker)
- Spatula (Any Brand is Fine)
We have spent many hours making, and eating, toasties in our Toastie Lab kitchen. We have some awesome equipment recommendations that you can use to make your very own toasties. Check it out on our Recommended Tools page.
The Vegan Option
Kimchi itself is often flavoured with fish sauce or brined shrimp. However, there are many brands that now offer vegan alternatives. Check out your local supermarket for your options, or make it yourself!
Kimchi is not very hard to make and although it takes a little bit more time, it is totally worth the wait!
Without the cheese and with just the kimchi, this toastie could turn out a little boring. We don’t want that! So in order to bring out the vegan fun, you could add slices of cucumber (make sure to take out the seeds, to not drown your toastie!), radish or spinach.
Make sure your bread is vegan and enjoy!
Kimchi
Kimchi is a Korean side dish of fermented vegetables (mostly cabbage and radish). Thanks to the fermentation process it is full of probiotics and therefore helps digestion and the immune system.
Kimchi is one of those foods that you can just keep eating without feeling guilty. Although, some might feel a little bloated after eating too much of it, but a toastie or two shouldn’t make you feel bad 🙂
Cheese Matters
For this toastie you can basically use any kind of cheese that tickles your fancy. We do like the spicier, saltier, more aged cheeses. Cheddar is good friends with kimchi, too.
Bread Dilemmas
Just like the cheese, there is no specific bread that we say you must use for this recipe. We have chosen a multi-grain bread, because the crunchiness of the seeds goes well with the chunkiness of the kimchi. However, white bread, sourdough, or corn-based-bread are also delicious alternatives.
To Butter Or Not To Butter
We believe that putting some butter on your toasties is one of the better life decisions you’ll ever make. However, if you want to cut down on your calorie-intake you could consider leaving it out altogether, or adding some olive oil to the grill itself.
Most toastie-makers do have an non-stick coating, so your toastie should come out perfectly crisp whether you butter up or not.
YouTube Video
Curious to see us in action? Go to our YouTube channel and watch the video online. Including easy step-by-step guidance for them visual learners among you!
Let Us Know What You Think
Tried this recipe? Let us know what you think! Suggestions, variations, or any other things that you would like us to try, are more than welcome. Here at the Toastie Lab, we love to experiment!
Print
Kimchi and Cheese Toastie Recipe
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 5
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 2 1x
Description
At the Toastie Lab there is no such thing as too cheesy. There is such a thing as a superduper, delicious, semi-healthy, easy, crispy, flavorful, mouth-watering, did I say delicious already? KIMCHI TOASTIE. OMG. Did we tell you about the spicy kimchi mayonnaise on the side, yet? Yeah, you’ll enjoy this one 🙂
Ingredients
- 4 slices of multigrain bread
- 100 grams of kimchi, drained, liquid stored separately
- cheese, the more aged the better.
- 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise
- butter
Instructions
- First, strain the kimchi thoroughly. You can do this by putting the kimchi in a sif and pressing the juice out of it. Make sure you do this right, because your toastie will drown if it there’s too much liquid left. For real, it will fall apart and ruin your lunch. No, not really, kimcheesy will never ruin anything. Never. Don’t throw out the liquid. We’ll use this later to make the kimchi mayonnaise.
- Take your favorite toastie bread and butter the outsides. Flip over.
- Add two slices of cheese on the bottom slice of bread. More is perfectly acceptable, too. Two is just the bare minimum 😉
- On top of the cheese, add some of the strained kimchi.
- Feeling cheesy? Add an extra slice of cheese on top of the kimchi. Then, put the second slice of bread on top of all that, press gently and head over to your toastie-maker.
- Put the toastie in the (pre-heated) toastie-iron. We prefer the grill because it keeps the bread together a little better without pressing any of the extra juice into the bread.
- Kimchi mayonnaise! While the toastie is doing it’s thing, you can prepare the kimchi mayonnaise. Remember the liquid that we kept apart? Take a tablespoon of mayonnaise and add a drop of the liquid to it. Stir, and ta-dah! Ready is your dipping sauce. If you use too much of the liquid, the sauce will turn very thin. This can actually be a good thing if you like your sauce to have a little more spice to it, but keep in mind that it won’t “dip” as nicely as a thicker sauce will do.
- After 5 minutes on the grill, the toastie should be ready. Take out carefully and put the toastie on a cutting board. Cut diagonally and enjoy!!!
- Category: Comfort Food, Snack, Lunch
- Method: Toastie
- Cuisine: Fusion
Keywords: Comfort Food, Snack, Lunch, Toastie
